Over the last decade, multihop routing for wireless ad hoc networks has been the focus of numerous research efforts. With a multitude of routing protocols having been proposed, a common challenge is faced in the ability of the protocol to adapt to the expected but unpredictable topological changes in wireless ad hoc networks.
In the literature, this is known as routing topology control and is defined as the act of computing and maintaining a connected topology among network nodes, based on which data routing may be performed in the network.
While topology control continues to receive considerable research attention, an essential element at the basis thereof—neighbor node discovery—remains severely overlooked and is often simplistically treated in the design of routing protocols. Neighbor node discovery relates to the process by which a network node detects and dynamically maintains a neighbor node set, wherein the neighbor node set includes network nodes with which direct symmetric communication links are present. By direct it is meant that there is no need to communicate through intermediate nodes.
Conventional methods for neighbor node discovery rely on a simple hello-reply exchange for detecting a neighbor node. However, while this approach may work in simulation, in practice, the success or failure of a single exchange does not accurately describe the presence or absence of a reliable communication link between two nodes.
What is needed therefore are methods and systems for reliable neighbor node discovery to support efficient data routing in wireless ad hoc networks.